Departmental Public Expenditure

Tom Watson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when and in what form he plans to publish a list of all items of expenditure by his Department over £25,000.

Justine Greening: The Prime Minister has written to Cabinet Ministers(1) reiterating transparency commitments made in the Coalition programme for government, and setting out a timetable for achieving them. In particular, all new items of central government spending over £25,000 will be published online in an open format from November 2010.
	(1)( )http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/statements-and-articles/2010/05/letter-to-government-departments-on-opening-up-data-51204

Departmental Official Cars

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the  (a) make,  (b) model and  (c) place of manufacture is of the car allocated for the use of each Minister in his Department.

Michael Penning: The Department for Transport inherited three cars allocated to its Ministers. One is a Toyota Prius T3 and manufactured in Japan and two are Honda Civic ES Hybrids also manufactured in Japan.
	These arrangements are changing following the publication of the new Ministerial Code which contains changes that affect ministerial entitlement to travel by Government car. The Code states that:
	"the number of Ministers with allocated cars and drivers will be kept to a minimum, taking into account security and other relevant considerations. Other Ministers will be entitled to use cars from the Government Car Service Pool as needed".
	Cabinet Office has provided clarification on how the code should be interpreted. The expectation is that Ministers not in the Cabinet will use the pool service and that Cabinet Ministers who have an allocated car will wish to consider how that car might be utilised by other Ministers within the Department before calls are made on the Government Car Service Pool.
	The Department for Transport and its Government Car and Despatch Agency are working with Departments to effect the transition to the new arrangements.

Manchester Metrolink

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what cost-benefit analysis his Department has conducted into construction of the 3a phase of Manchester Metrolink extension alone; and if he will make a statement.

Norman Baker: The Department for Transport (DfT) awarded final approval to the Manchester Metrolink 3A extensions to Rochdale (via Oldham) and Chorlton in 2008 with an agreed funding contribution of £244 million.
	The decision to award funding was taken by Ministers after officials assessed the business case put forward by Greater Manchester Public Transport Executive (GMPTE). The assessment included a full cost-benefit analysis prepared in line with DfT guidance at that time. DfT officials concluded that these two extensions offered benefits of around £2.50 for every £1 of Government expenditure, in addition to positive impacts on air quality, landscape, safety, accessibility and the wider economy.
	Metrolink 3A also includes an extension to Droylesden. The Department did not fully assess the impact of this other extension given that GMPTE committed to fund this without any contribution from central Government.

Natural England: Finance

Angela Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether Natural England has been required to reduce its budget for 2010-11.

Richard Benyon: The Government's top priority is to tackle the fiscal deficit. DEFRA and its network are committed to delivering £162 million savings out of a total of £6.2 billion savings recently announced for 2010-11 by the Government. organisations within the DEFRA network, including Natural England, will need to contribute to the savings. For Natural England, this contribution will amount to some £7.5 million.

Nature Conservation

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the implications for her Department's policies of the contents of the third edition of the UN Global Biodiversity Outlook.

Richard Benyon: We have noted the findings of the Global Biodiversity Outlook 3 (GB03) which confirm that the global 2010-biodiversity target has not been met.
	We are working hard to prepare for the landmark Convention on Biological Diversity conference in Nagoya, Japan, in October which will bring together up to 193 parties to consider a framework for tackling global biodiversity loss beyond 2010. The findings and analyses included in GB03 have informed the development of the post-2010 framework, so that it seeks to respond to the underlying drivers of biodiversity loss.
	At Nagoya, we are aiming to adopt strong global post-2010 targets that drive action, and allow parties to set their own national targets within that over-arching framework.
	Following on from Nagoya one of our key priorities will be to deliver a White Paper on the natural environment. We will be making an announcement on the White Paper in the coming weeks.

Departmental Flags

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what his policy is on flying the Union flag each day from each official building for which his Department is responsible.

John Penrose: The Department flies the Union flag every day of the year in accordance with the guidance for the flying of the Union flag on UK Government buildings. The guidance is available on the DCMS website
	http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/honours/7124.aspx

National Lottery: Wales

Jonathan Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what effect the proposed changes in the proportions of  (a) National Lottery funding for the arts, heritage and sport and  (b) the Big Lottery Fund will have on the amount of National Lottery funding that will be allocated to Wales.

John Penrose: On current projects of lottery income, after the proposed change in the shares of lottery income and the end of the Olympic Lottery diversion after 2012-13, all the non-Olympic lottery distributors including Big Lottery Fund, should have higher incomes.
	On current projections, the lottery funding for Arts Council Wales and Sports Council Wales should increase by around £2.5 million a year each, a total of around £5 million.
	In addition, Wales will continue to receive its share of funding from the UK wide distributors: UK Sport, the UK Film Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund. Big has to date allocated a standard proportion of funding to Wales: after top-slicing 10% for UK wide projects, 6.5% is allocated to projects in Wales and this will not be affected by these changes. The other distributors, due to the nature of their business, have not operated with a such a standard proportion in the past and the amount of funding going to Wales in future will therefore depend on individual decisions about funding applications received, as usual.
	The Government's consultation on the change to the lottery shares is intended to pick up any details of impact. Full details of the consultation can be found at:
	http://www.dcms.gov.uk/consultations/7070.aspx

Electoral Register

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice which local authority electoral registration officers  (a) sent canvass returns more than once,  (b) made house-to-house inquiries in connection with the canvass,  (c) made contact by such other means as they thought appropriate with a person with no entry in the register and  (d) inspected a record they were permitted by law to inspect as part of the last electoral registration exercise.

Mark Harper: I have been asked to reply.
	The Government do not hold this information, but under section 9A of the Representation of the People Act 1983, each electoral registration officer is under a duty to take all steps that are necessary to maintain their registers.
	The steps that EROs must take, as set out in that section, include:
	 (a) sending more than once to any address the form to be used for the canvass;
	 (b) making on one or more occasions house to house inquiries;
	 (c) making contact by such other means as the registration officer thinks appropriate with persons who do not have an entry in a register;
	 (d) inspecting any records held by any person which he is permitted to inspect under or by virtue of any enactment or rule of law;
	 (e) providing training to persons under his direction or control in connection with the carrying out of the duty.
	The Electoral Commission published a report on EROs' performance in March 2010: "Report on performance standards for Electoral Registration Officers in Great Britain". The report found that just under 96% of EROs in Great Britain met or exceeded the required standard for the "Completeness and accuracy of electoral registration records", compared to 83% of EROs the previous year.

Nuclear Power Stations: Decommissioning

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much funding from the public purse had been allocated for the purposes of  (a) the underwriting of insurance liabilities,  (b) research and development for long-term nuclear waste management and facility decommissioning and  (c) payments to (i) the International Atomic Energy Agency (ii) the Euratom Nuclear Agency, (iii) the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, (iv) the National Nuclear Laboratory, (v) the Nuclear Academy, (vi) the Nuclear Institute and (vii) other international nuclear bodies on the latest date for which figures are available.

Charles Hendry: The information is as follows:
	 Funding
	 (a) The underwriting of insurance liabilities
	There is currently no Government funding for the purposes of underwriting nuclear insurance liabilities.
	 (b) Research
	The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) directly commissions research in support of its decommissioning and waste management mission. In 2010-11 NDA has allocated £11 million to research expenditure. This does not include indirect expenditure by NDA's contractors.
	The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's (EPSRC) current research portfolio in this area has a total value of £8.5 million. In 2008-09 the Research Councils UK Energy Programme spent £1.7 million on eight projects directly relevant to long-term nuclear waste management and facility decommissioning. The Natural Environment Research Council has allocated £676,000 for 2010-11 and £2.6 million in future years to decommissioning and waste management research. In 2009-10 they provided funding of £277,000 to projects in this area.
	The Environment Agency (EA) commission research relevant to radioactive substance regulation. The EA is currently reviewing its funding allocations for research. The Environment Agency recover the majority of the costs of this research from industry. However in 2009-10, EA spent some £180,000 in grant in aid on regulatory research relevant to nuclear waste and decommissioning (approximately 25% of the research costs in that year).
	 (c) Payments to:
	 (i) The International Atomic Energy Agency
	The UK allocated and paid a total of just under US$ 9.3 million and Euros 16.4 million to the IAEA for 2010. A similar sum, but allowing for inflation, exchange rate differences, and the likely outcome of current ongoing budget negotiations among member states and the agency, has been set aside for 2011.
	 (ii) Euratom Nuclear Agency
	It is assumed for the purpose of this PQ that the Member for Newport West is referring to the Euratom Supply Agency. Since 2008 the European Commission has taken charge of all expenses incurred by the Euratom Supply Agency.
	 (iii) OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA)
	As a member of the NEA the UK pays an annual subscription of around £0.6 million (depending on exchange rates). In addition the UK also subscribes to the NEA's Databank, which contains technical information from other NEA members, at a cost of £350,000 a year. However, the money paid by the UK Government for the Databank subscription is recovered from those in the nuclear industry who access/use the information.
	 (iv) The National Nuclear Laboratory
	The NNL operates on a commercial basis, managed through a GOCO (Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated) arrangement and does not receive funding from the public purse.
	 (v) The Nuclear Academy
	No funding is currently allocated directly from the public purse. However, in 2007-08 the NDA provided £5 million to support the establishment of Energus (formerly referred to as the Nuclear Academy) as a centre of excellence for skills, training and business support.
	 (vi) The Nuclear Institute
	The Nuclear Institute receives no public income. The NI income is from individual membership, surplus from events and sales of journals and journal advertising and some occasional donations.
	 (vii) Other international nuclear b odies
	We do not make payments to any other international nuclear bodies.

Departmental Redundancy Pay

David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what his most recent estimate is of the annual cost to his Department of redundancy payments for  (a) front line and  (b) other staff.

David Mundell: All the staff in the Scotland Office are on secondment, mainly from the Ministry of Justice or the Scottish Government and redundancy issues are a matter for these parent bodies.

Voluntary Organisations

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what steps his Department is taking to provide additional resources to the voluntary sector.

Nick Hurd: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave during Cabinet Office oral questions on 9 June 2010,  Official Report, column 316.

Automatic Number Plate Recognition

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cars have been confiscated by the police on the basis of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) data since the police ANPR system became operational.

James Brokenshire: This information requested is not held centrally.

Drugs: Latin America

Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  whether she plans to seek to tackle the drugs trade in  (a) Peru and  (b) Venezuela;
	(2)  what her policy is on tackling the drugs trade in Colombia.

James Brokenshire: Our counter-narcotics work with Colombia is an integral part of the Government's drugs strategy. The UK Threat Assessment (UKTA) for 2009-10 estimated that around 65% of global cocaine production and distribution originates from Colombia or in the border areas of Venezuela and Ecuador. Peru and Bolivia account for the remaining 30 to 35%. Venezuela and Brazil, as well as Caribbean and West African states, are also identified as trafficking routes to the UK and the rest of Europe.
	In Colombia, the UK Government have supported projects totalling £1.1 million through the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and works with other countries in information sharing, raising policing and law-enforcement standards and promoting best practice among Colombian law-enforcement partners. This has contributed to the arrest of high profile drugs traffickers, the dismantling of organised crime networks and the seizure of many tonnes of cocaine destined for the UK.
	In Peru, we work closely with Peruvian partners to support their efforts to tackle the threat that cocaine poses to the UK and Europe. We invest in a range of UNODC implemented capacity building projects focusing on the areas of forensics, law enforcement, and anti-money laundering work, totalling approximately £180,000 in FY 2009-10. The UK has also supported Peru's introduction of its 'FRANCO' helpline and website for young people, which is based on the UK's 'Talk to FRANK' campaign.
	Venezuela is used as a trafficking route to the UK and the rest of Europe. There is good operational co-operation between Venezuela and UK law enforcement agencies and we have supported several initiatives in information sharing, the sharing of best practice and co-operation on seizures and arrests. This has resulted in disruption to organised crime networks and the seizure of cocaine destined for European/UK markets. The recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Venezuela demonstrates the Government's commitment to counter narcotics work in Venezuela.

Identity Cards

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make it her policy to offer a reduction in the full passport application fee equivalent to the application fee for an ID card to persons who acted on advice from the Identity and Passport Service to apply for an ID card for use as a travel document in lieu of a passport.

Damian Green: The Identity Documents Bill was laid before Parliament on 26 May 2010. The Bill proposes the scrapping of ID Cards and the National Identity Register. Cards will remain valid for one month after Royal Assent. As was made clear in Opposition and the Home Secretary has reiterated in Government, the Government will not compensate people who bought an ID card.

Adult Education

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps he plans to take in relation to implementation of the recommendations of the White Paper, The Learning Revolution.

John Hayes: The "Learning Revolution" White Paper was published by the previous Government. We now have a new Government and a fresh chance to reassess the principles that underpin public policy in order to build a better society founded on social mobility, social justice and social cohesion.
	I have long been a believer in the power of adult and community learning and the contribution it makes to the development of stronger, healthier and more confident communities. These views are shared by my Secretary of State and by the Prime Minister. We want everyone to have the chance to be inspired by learning, so that their lives, their families and their communities can benefit.
	We want people to rise as high as their talents and ambitions will take them. We will achieve this by reducing bureaucracy, by putting an end to the previous preoccupation with targets and by making adult and community learning universally available, targeting public support for disadvantaged areas and those people who have had least opportunity to learn in the past.

Business: Regulation

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether the proposed one-in one-out rule on business regulation will apply to employment law.

Edward Davey: The "one-in, one-out" rule will change the incentives for policymakers across government, encouraging a focus on identifying regulations to be repealed, simplified or replaced by alternative policy approaches.
	Responsible Departments will take forward the identification of regulations that can be removed or simplified. All relevant regulations are within scope.

Departmental Flags

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what his policy is on flying the Union flag each day from each official building for which his Department is responsible.

Edward Davey: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport issues guidance for the flying of the Union flag on UK Government buildings. The guidance encourages the Union flag to be flown 365 days a year, and as a minimum all Departments must fly the Union flag on the 19 special designated days e.g. Queen's birthday, Remembrance Day, etc. and other special occasions as required e.g. State Opening of Parliament.
	More information on the guidance is available on the DCMS website:
	http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/honours/7124.aspx
	The Department for Business Innovation and Skills flies the Union flag 365 days of the year from those buildings for which we have flagpoles.

New Businesses: Ex-servicemen

Mark Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether he plans to continue the Be the Boss scheme announced in March 2010 to assist ex-service personnel in starting businesses; and if he will make a statement.

Mark Prisk: The Be the Boss scheme is being delivered by the Royal British Legion. To date, £2 million of endowment funding has been provided to them and the remaining funding for the endowment (potentially up to £3 million in the current financial year) is at the discretion of the Secretary of State and conditional upon an assessment that the scheme is making a positive impact.
	Royal British Legion will be accepting applications to the scheme from 14 June 2010 via
	www.civvystreet.org/

Sector Skills Councils

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what his plans are for the future of sector skills councils.

John Hayes: Sector skills councils have a crucial role in all aspects of our skills policy, including apprenticeships. We will continue to empower them as the voice of employers in the skills system-and to challenge them to perform with maximum effectiveness.

Allotments

Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will take steps to ensure that local authorities provide allotments under the terms of the Allotments and Small Holdings Act 1908.

Andrew Stunell: Government recognise that allotments are valuable green spaces and community assets and policy in this area is currently under consideration.

Housing: Construction

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the effects on  (a) levels of employment and  (b) the number of apprenticeships in the construction sector of in-year change to his Department's expenditure on housing consequent upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer's announcement on in-year changes in public expenditure on 24 May 2010.

Andrew Stunell: The Government have announced £100 million of savings from the National Affordable Housing Programme and £50 million from the Kickstart Programme. Using the industry standard formula of 21 jobs and one apprenticeship per £l million investment spend then the effect of these savings will equate to 2,100 fewer jobs and 100 fewer apprenticeships through the NAHP and 1,050 fewer jobs and 50 fewer apprentices through Kickstart.
	However, £500 million out of the Government's £6.2 billion savings announced on 25 May is being reinvested to further education, apprenticeships and social housing. This will include £150 million to fund 50,000 new apprenticeship places, focused on small and medium enterprises and £170 million to safeguard delivery of around 4,000 otherwise unfunded social rented homes to start on site this year, protecting 3,500 jobs and prioritising provision for the most vulnerable.

Social Rented Housing

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance his Department issues to registered social landlords on the time period within which they must begin development of assets after acquisition in order to qualify for public subsidy for such development.

Andrew Stunell: This Department does not issue guidance to registered social landlords on the time period within which they must begin to develop assets after acquisition to qualify for public subsidy.
	This Department provides funding to registered social landlords (RSLs)/registered providers (RPs) of affordable housing through the Homes and Communities (HCA) who administer the National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP). The HCA sets out in their Prospectus and the Affordable Housing Capital Funding Guide (AHCFG) requirements for obtaining funding from the NAHP.
	When seeking grant through the NAHP RSLs/RPs must set milestones including start on site and practical completion dates as part of their bid. HCA monitors the RSLs/RPs performance against these milestones. Grant is paid to RSLs/RPs on start on site and practical completion (i.e. when those milestones have been achieved). Where projects are delayed, the RSL/RP must re-forecast the milestone and the HCA will decide whether to accept the revised forecast. If delays are significant, and might impact on delivery of the HCA's programme and achievement of targets, it will consider withdrawing funding for the scheme.

Children: Disadvantaged

Graham Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he is taking to implement the policies contained in his Department's recent Green Paper on early intervention.

Tim Loughton: holding answer 8 June 2010
	The Paper contained examples of effective practice that other local areas may wish to consider. Any future decisions on early intervention policy will be advised in due course as part of the Government's broader strategy for children, young people and families.

Overseas Aid

Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development to which countries his Department allocated funding in the last 12 months; and whether he plans to  (a) withdraw funding from any such country and  (b) commence funding to any new country.

Alan Duncan: Details of the level of aid provided to individual countries in 2008-09 were published in Statistics on International Development, which is available on the Department for International Development's (DFID's) website at;
	http://www.dfid.gov.uk/About-DFID/Finance-and-performance/Aid-Statistics/Statistics-on-International-Development-2009/
	Provisional details of the 2009-10 programme will be published in the annual report in July and final details in Statistics on International Development later in 2010.
	In the coming months DFID will be reviewing its aid programmes to determine how we can achieve better value for money for the taxpayer and accelerate progress towards the MDGs. Decisions on future allocations to countries will be taken during this process.

Overseas Aid: Public Consultation

Christopher Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what criteria he used in his decision to end the five grant arrangements intended to engage the British public in development matters.

Alan Duncan: The highest priority for the Department of International Development (DFID) is to ensure that aid money is spent on activities that deliver real results on the ground in developing countries to reduce poverty. To this end, an initial review was conducted of those areas of expenditure where the link between project activities and poverty reduction in the developing world was least demonstrated, in this context, four projects within the Development Awareness Fund (DAF), and a festivals outreach project were identified for termination. An estimate of funds saved from the termination of these projects is approximately £590,000. These funds will be redirected to front line poverty reduction in developing countries.
	A wider review of this area of work is now being undertaken and further decisions on expenditures in this area will be made in due course.

Sudan: Overseas Aid

Margaret Ritchie: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what humanitarian aid his Department is providing to displaced people in Darfur. [R]

Stephen O'Brien: The UK provides assistance to conflict-affected people in Darfur through a variety of mechanisms, including support for the African Union/United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) and other peacebuilding and security programmes.
	Humanitarian programmes are targeted at both displaced and resident populations. We are the largest donor to the UN's Common Humanitarian Fund, with 30% of this fund spent on humanitarian assistance in Darfur. These contributions, along with our bilateral programme, have helped 87,000 IDPs return home in 2008, train and employ 800 teachers, open 64 health care facilities, and install 246 boreholes and 785 latrines.
	We also deliver humanitarian aid through NGOs such as Mediar, Tearfund, GOAL and RedR, who are providing health services for 540,000 people, as well as nutrition, water and sanitation programmes in Darfur and elsewhere. We contribute to the ICRC's work in Sudan which this year will spend approximately 70% on its humanitarian response in Darfur. Due to poor rains and increasing conflict we recently made an exceptional allocation to the UN World Food Programme's emergency operations which will provide food assistance for some 3 million people across Sudan, including Darfur.
	We are currently reviewing all our aid, including aid channelled through multilateral agencies to ensure it is as effective as possible and brings real benefit in terms of building peace and delivering assistance to those affected by conflict.